This Week at Our House #20 First Full Week of Summer Vacation

We had our first full week of summer vacation, and the weather turned hot. North Carolina's weather is funny. All winter it seems that it cannot make up it's mind whether it is hot or cold,  and then finally it settles into very hot and that is what it stays for close to 6 months.

I managed to get the kids' reading and one math problem in 3 of the 5 days. Most of the kids read on their own and I don't need to remind them or read with them. It's Josh and Arwen that I need to remind and have them read to me. Arwen is quite a good reader now, but does not sit down and read unless she is told to. Josh is getting there. He brings me boxes and books and things to see if he has read them correctly, and I think that is a big step forward.

Friday we made it back to the beach. The waves were huge with a strong undertow and the wind was blowing really hard. There was a red flag out warning beach goers. We could not really swim much, but the kids had a lot of fun being crashed down by the huge waves on the shore. As we were leaving, Rachel exclaimed, "That was the best beach day, ever!"

I felt like we got a lot done on the roof until we got to a stopping point. We found some damaged wood and need to get that repaired, so we are waiting for me to take my weekly trip out to the stores. I will do that tomorrow. We have a temple trip planned this next week which will cut into roofing time so I think we will have the roof done in two weeks. Once the tear off is complete and any repairs are done, nailing on shingles goes quite quickly. Fortunately, the weather has been unusually dry.

Ruth, Kate, and Johnny do not take any time off. They have their projects they are working on and they do so 7 days a week. They are all working on transcribing church historical documents, and they feel perfectly fine doing that on Sundays. They have also gotten Adam and Rachel involved. There is so much stuff and we have learned so much over the last year and a half from reading, researching, and studying church history. In a way, my kids have become self-taught historians. They do exactly what historians who have PhD's do. Honestly, it surprises me that anyone has thought that a PhD would be necessary for historical study, research, and writing.

Kate has almost finished her first children's book. We will self publish that through amazon. Adam and I carried her ducks into her when she had her drawings out and she about had a heart attack. She has worked very hard on this project.

All of the older kids work a lot on art and illustration. Along with John, they have a drawing contest each week. They have two parts to this: they each submit one drawing from someone else's art and one original drawing.

I began potty training Sam this week. The first day, he did the best. The following days have been hit and miss. The positive thing is that he seems to be getting used to being without a diaper. When we got home from church, he immediately stripped down and sat on his potty chair. Later in the day, John put a diaper on him and he took it off almost right away and used his potty chair. I can never tell how easy or hard potty training will be. So far, it is not too terrible.

Gideon is 4 months old now and as

healthy as can be. He is a very large baby weighing over 16 pounds. He holds himself up well when lying on his tummy and has even begun to scoot around a little. I put him on the floor and ten minutes later, he had turned a corner and moved about 3 feet. I find that pretty impressive for a baby the day before hitting 4 months. He still coos and talks and is smiley. He worried us a lot during the pregnancy, but is smarter and stronger than most of our babies at the same age. The Lord has really blessed him.

Arwen lost her second top tooth, and now has that cute gap on top. She lost the tooth on Saturday. All day long she came to me saying, "Mom, my tooth is much more wiggly." It has been loose for months, so I did not pay too much attention, until she came outside to me and showed me the gap. We don't do the tooth fairy, but I always get them a pack of gum for the lost tooth. Arwen is pretty excited about that. She knows exactly what kind of gum she likes.

Ruth has been helping with the little girls a lot. She reads scriptures to Susan everyday. And she reads books to Susan and Arwen. They adore her.

Susan loves to swing. We put a couple of swings in a large tree in our yard. But I only let Suzy go and play there if she has an older kid with her. This week we are going to try to get a swing put up on our back deck for her so that it is in the fenced in area. It won't be as shady, but she will be able to use it as much as she wants.

Anya is at that very sweet, very helpful, and very innocent age. She is also just Anya and everyone likes her and everyone gets along with her. She rarely fights with anyone and everyone likes her to be there playing their games or coloring or whatever is happening. Anya helps me a lot with kitchen cleaning and taking care of the baby.  I rarely have funny stories to tell about Anya. It is not because she is not around or not fun, it's just because she is such a sweet tempered, easy going girl.

Joseph came into my room while he was supposed to be cleaning the kitchen with Johnny. He said, "Johnny told me that he isn't nice and he isn't kind." Joseph and I both agreed that Johnny's statement was plain silliness. We all know that Johnny is the nicest and kindest in the family.

Sam ran into the house panting. He grabbed my arm, looked seriously into my eyes, and said, "Mom, it's scary and bites!" I sent Adam outside with Sam to check it out. Adam came back in the house laughing. It was a slug.

Joseph asked me if I had written about our chicken named Menace being broody and nesting in the garage. I said that I had not. Joseph told me that I should start keeping a weekly list of all of the things the chickens do. I said I thought that would not be interesting, but Joseph assured me that it would.

John told Sam he could have no more m&ms and Sam replied, "Oh man."

John told Josh to stop wrestling Joseph and to go and tell everyone to come for prayer. Josh replied, "Ahhhh, that's hard." Not thinking he had asked Josh to do anything terribly difficult, John made a surprised exclamation.

Kate asked how many fudgicles she could have. I said I didn't care, and that she could have 5 if she wanted. She ran into the house to get them and ran out with Adam chasing after her trying to get some too. It was pretty funny.

More Pictures

This is the second bucket of blackberries that we got this week.We need to go out and get another. There are still plenty of berries to collect.

I asked Arwen to show me her gap.

I then told her to smile.

Mother's Day 2019

I have been very blessed with all of these beautiful children. I love being a mother, and I love being a mother to many. 

It's only been a few years that I have made the kids take a picture with me on mother's day, but I thought it would be fun to put them all together in one post. 

Mother's Day 2018

Mother's Day 2017

Mother's Day 2016

Mother's Day 2015

This Week at Our House #19 Summer Vacation Begins

Another busy week has passed us by. Monday and Tuesday, we finished our final two days of the school year. Unlike public school, where things get easier at the end and there is a lot of down time and fun activities, we just plow right through until the end. For the summer, I will make them read their scriptures everyday and do one math problem, for the most part, but this week, we only managed that on Wednesday.

Thursday, we took the five and half hour drive to the temple. It's a rough trip. Driving 11 hours in one day for two hours at the temple is not easy. But this time, I was glad to be there to have the time to quietly ponder and pray. Additionally, the ride home, while tedious was quite fun. Kate, and Ruth and John and I had some good conversations and some very fun conversations.

Friday, we cleaned the whole house and put the new floor into the dining room. We have the living room floor left, 2 more bedrooms to paint, two more doors to paint, and some of the outside of the house to paint, and a storm door to replace and hang. Plus this week I began working on our roof.

After being cheated by the original roofer and getting estimates from a few others, we decided to take the task on ourselves. It's intimidating, but our roof is one story, so it is not terribly dangerous. In the end, we decided if the druggies around here can tear off a roof and put a new one on, then we, without drugs, could do it just as well, if not better, and keep the cost of  the labor. We have a little more than half the roof, plus fixing some of the things the first roofer messed up. We know what needs to be done. We have most of the parts, and can get the rest with a quick trip to the supply store. I think it will be challenging, but we are beginning to get into a groove with it.

I have been doing the tear off and the clean up and the tar applications. Johnny has been nailing down the tar paper and John and Adam have been nailing on the new shingles. Adam puts down all the starter shingles because he has the best balance. I have been kind of the boss about it too. Not because I am bossy as much as because I knew what was messed up and what needed to be done from the companies that came and gave us estimates. And because I am doing the tear off, that pretty much decides the order of the other parts.

Basically this week, we ended school and got to work on house projects. That will be the case, I think for a good month more. We are still hoping and praying and fasting for John to get a job and to be able to move out of here. We have been having one person in the home fast each day for several months now.

The kids played outside all week. It is so beautiful here and our yard is private and peaceful with a variety of nature. We have flowers and bushes and tons of trees. We have fruits and vegetables and herbs growing. Last year, we found out that we had a bunch of wild blackberries, so we made more room for them and now we have an acre of wild blackberries, along with a fertile hill full of very large luscious berries that will ripen soon. When I want some herbs, I step out of the front door and clip them. I weeded my kitchen garden yesterday, brought in a large bunch of cilantro and immediately made a delicious salsa that will go well with our falafel dinner tonight. I love our yard. I wish we could have made this our permanent home.

Here are our fun stories and conversations from this past week:

Adam: "Josh, stop licking our electronics,"
Johnny: "what was he licking?"
Adam: "The bottom of the keyboard where the battery goes in."
Johnny: "Josh, don't lick the keyboard."
Josh in a very pleasant voice: "Okay."

Gideon happily talked to the picture of the raccoon on Ruth's sweater.

Sam handed me a banana. I peeled it for him and handed it back. He said, "thank you, mom." Then he took a bite and said, "mmmm, that's great, Mom!"

Susan asks to watch "minjas" meaning, "Lego Ninjago" a lot everyday. One day this week, when I was wearied of her pleas for tv time, I said, "Nope, the minjas are dead." Later that evening, I gave in when Arwen asked to watch Ninjago, and turned it on. Susan came in to watch the show and I did not think anything of it, and went out to work on something or take care of the baby. Ruth and Kate came into me laughing and said that they had the funniest conversation with Susan. Apparently, Susan went into their room sad and begged them to watch Barbie songs on their computer. They asked Susan why and why she was sad. Susan said it

was because the "minjas are dead." I told them, that actually, I told Susan that the minjas were dead. So I went in to where the little kids were watching tv and asked Susan if the minjas were actually dead. She pointed to the screen and sadly said, "these ones are not." I felt bad and explained to her that none of them were dead and I was just teasing her.

As I said in another post, Rachel is being a little silly by refusing to say anything absolute. It would be too embarrassing if I wrote down the funny conversation I had with her this week with her, "Well, I think, maybe, it is this way" conversation. Needless to say, by the end of the conversation, she declared absolutely what was the case, lest she have to face having me take a closer look resulting in more than necessary embarrassment.

Arwen just loves babies. She is always cuddling and cooing at Gideon and now she is always holding the baby kittens and cooing at them and telling them how cute they are.

Joseph made brownies for us at night and the little kids did not get any, so he made more the next morning.

Our most pecked hen has taken up residence in the house, particularly in Gideon's bed, but also on the couch. She walks inside when the kids open the door and comes and builds a nest to lay her eggs or just hang out with the family. She sat by Anya, probably her favorite human, and tried to get her hair to use for a nest. Anya gave her some rags and a bath towel. She built a nest and laid her egg there on the couch. The next two days, she got into Gideon's bed, napped there, and used the blankets to form a nest and laid eggs there.

Susan got into Gideon's bed with the hen to take a nap.

Our pecked hen finding peace indoors with lots of children

(Gideon mostly sleeps with me still, so it's not  that big of a deal.) The surprising thing is she has been mostly going outside to poop. Mostly, is the operative word, though. She has pooped 3 times in the house. Once in my shoes, once on the couch, and once on the floor.

Mom: Tell me what to write about Joseph and Anya.
Johnny: I don't know. I don't know what Joseph and Anya did. I don't even know what I did.

More Pictures

Rachel being goofy in mismatched clothes

proof that I actually do weed the flower beds

Wild blackberries

This Week at Our House # 18 A Workful Week

The week was hot, dry, and sunny. The kids spent most of their free time outside. My gardens are all growing and growing well. We got a lot done on the house projects, one of our cats had kittens, and we finished our last full week of the 2018-2019 school year.

We got a lot of work done in general this week, which always makes me happy. I like it better when I am productive. The boys got the majority of the lawn mowed, which is a huge, never-ending task in North Carolina on our 3 acre yard with only a push mower. I did tons of laundry, since the kids play in the dirt all the time. Kate made 8

homemade pies. Rachel made 5 cheesecakes. I made cinnamon rolls two days in a row, and Ruth kept up on the dishes for us. I got the front flower beds weeded, which is kind of a useless task as they will all be back in two days time. I started a new blog for my kids for the next school year that is a combination of a year long syllabus and the art, language arts, and spanish curriculum I am writing for them. Then finally, I got all the boys and many of the girls hair cut. Anya and Rachel took care of Gideon a lot while I did the things that I did. All in all it was a good week.


Here Some the Fun Conversations and Things from the Week:

Mom: Sam are you poopy?
Sam: No, not yet, Mom.

We painted the living room--sage green, my choice, and two coats. I think it looks good. John thinks it does not match anything else in the house, including the brick red door that I painted in the living room as well. Joseph said he didn't like it, but he thought he could get used to it since it used to be striped wall paper. Josh said it was horrible. Josh, Kate, Joseph, and Anya joked that I chose the color I did to match all the snot the kids would smear on the walls. Then they decided it looked like we smashed avocados all over the walls. Then it dried darker. Anya, who like me, has a favorite color of green, said she likes it. Ruth said that I could

hardly do anything worse than the wallpaper that was there, so she likes it just fine. I think Joseph is the wisest. Once we are used to it, we will start thinking a different color is weird and the green is quite natural and normal.

Adam, Joseph, and Joshua were sword-fighting with large sticks outside:
Mom: Adam settle down. You're being too rough.
Joseph: No, Adam is being too fun.

While I was talking to John, Arwen came up and said, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom," then she grabbed my face, pulled it toward her and said, "mom are you listening to me." I said, "no, but you are interrupting me. You need to wait until I am done talking."

Sam said, "My want cocoa". Adam is the only other kid who switched I and my.

Kate teased Gideon by tickling his feet and making him look at her no matter where he turned. For the rest of the day he would not look at her or smile at her, even though he was happy to look at, smile at, and coo at everyone else. He finally forgave her when she said "Gomen'nasai" which is I'm sorry, in Japanese, and gave him a little bow and then he smiled at her.

Sam came inside excitedly telling me something and pulling on my clothes. I could not tell what he was saying, so I turned to Susan for an explanation and she said, "It looks like there are baby cats outside." Later Susan looked at the runt and said, "It looks like a rat."

Josh: Which would you rather: taste like puke or taste like chocolate?
Joseph: I would rather taste like puke because if I tasted like chocolate people would want to eat me.
Josh sounding disappointed: No you don't want to taste like pukey disgustingness.

I was video taping Rachel singing this silly exercise song that she made up.  She said, "First, you touch your toes, one, two, three, four". Then Johnny rushed in and said, "Then you trip your opponent. The then swiped his leg under her feet and grabbed her up and gently dropped her to the floor. Then Johnny looked at me with the camera and Kate and Ruth laughing and he said, "Wait are you recording!?" and walked embarrassingly out of the room. I think we will always love that video.

We have been watching Master Chef since the birth of Gideon. As a result, the kids play a cooking contest out in the sand. Anya gets to be Gordon Ramsay. She calls herself Ramsey Gordon. She throws the kids creations on the ground and says things like, "this is dog food! Bleep, bleep, bleep!". And when she thinks they really didn't do well, she says things like, "great effort!".

More Pictures

Before Sam's First haircut

Sam's First haircut

John missed the last haircut, because he did not feel like it, and ended up looking either like a mad scientist, or a middle aged skate boarder that didn't want to grow up.

Here is the after picture of which he thought I cut it too short.